Scripting Language Versus Compiled Language

After reviewing some of the basic slides that John Zelle put up about Teaching Computer Science with Python, my student asked me what a scripting language was.  I compared Python to C and then threw in Java, a byte compiled language, to round out the comparison.

Program in C.

/* Hello World program */
#include<stdio.h>
main()

{   

printf("Hello World");

}

 Since we're on a Mac, the command in the terminal is:

gcc -o helloworld helloworld.c

Program in Java

class HelloWorldApp{     

public static void main(String[] args) {         

System.out.println("Hello World!"); // Display the string.    

}

}

byte compile the Java code:

javac HelloWorldApp.java

Run it:

java HelloWorldApp

Python

print ("Hello World")